We've Got Mail!

We are learning about the United States in second grade right now.  As I was planning for this unit way back in August, before school started, I joined the Postcard Exchange organized by Cheryl over at


I purchased a plain mailbox from Hobby Lobby so that we could start getting our postcards.

Then I jazzed it up a bit!

Look!  We've got mail!

After we read the information on the back of our postcard and discuss the picture on the front, we record the information in our Book of the States {pick up your copy here}

We started by adding information about our own state:

The students have the half page copies in their book (trying to save paper!) but I am creating one with them on full-page sheets in order to keep in our classroom library when we finish.


















After we fill in the information, we color in the state on our map:

All of the above are included in my Studying the States packet:

Me On the Map

In Social Studies, we are studying globes and maps.  Second graders, cute things that they are, have no concept of the world.  And rightfully so.  Most of my students haven't been out of our small state.  It is hard for them to grasp how big our planet, continent, country, state, town, etc are.  It's a huge concept!  Last year, I found an awesome idea from:

The product is:

It was actually the first thing I ever bought on Teachers Pay Teachers!

We started by reading Me On the Map by Joan Sweeney.  It's a very basic, simple book that helps students understand their place in the world.

Then the students create a flip book with words and pictures based on their planet, continent, country, state, town, street and ending with a picture of themselves.

They turned out really great!

Then they draw a picture of themselves standing on the Earth.

And the finished products!

Sorry for the awful picture {the sun was really bright and I didn't feel like pulling down the shades}.  I think my students now have a better grasp on the difference between a continent and a country, etc.